Inspirational Weekly Parsha Insights and anecdotes of Rabbi Schwartz and his never dull family as they acclimate and absorb into their new home in Karmiel Israel, having made Aliyah- August 2010

Karmiel

Our view of the Galile

Friday, July 15, 2016

Survivor! -Balak 2016/5776

Insights and Inspiration

from the

Holy Land
from

Rabbi Ephraim Schwartz

"Your friend in Karmiel"

July 15th 2016 -Volume 6,
Issue 41 9th Tamuz 5776

Parshat Balak

Survivor!

There is one topic unfortunately that unites
as diversely opinionated nation as the Jewish people. It is our hope and
determination to bring an end to anti-Semitism and persecution. Historically we
have undoubtedly held the “most persecuted nation” status from time
immemorial and it is therefore those experiences collectively held in our
national consciousness that has always motivated us to combat the forces that
threaten the peaceful existence of God’s creatures on this planet. However to a
large degree many of our solutions have failed.

There were many Jews that believed (and
still believe-just ask Bernie :)) that socialism, a world governed by the people
with no differences in classes was the answer. When that failed many saw the
solution in assimilation and intermarriage. (Perhaps as well still today-Ask
Chelsea’s husband, Hillary’s son-in-lawLL) The idea being if we mingled in
their societies and became part of them we won’t be singled out anymore as
Jews. “Berlin is our new Jerusalem” then became the calling cry for many in the
early 1900’s as many Jews attempted through intermarriage and assimilation to
become more German than the Germans. Even earlier than that, in the 1600’s many
Jews referred to Poland in Yiddish as “Po-Lin” translated as “here we
will be our resting place”. The Chemlinitzki revolutions, pogroms and
Hitler’s selections quickly put an end to those dreams.

The aftermath of the Holocaust led to the
development of the belief in Zionism and the establishment of the modern State
of Israel as the antidote for the nations looking at us negatively. In Herzl’s
ideology, developed after the Dreyfuss trial (That tragic anti-semitically
prosecuted and convicted officer Alfred Drefyfuss’s yartzeit is
this week) was that the reason they hate us is because we don’t have our own
country. Because we ae nomads in their countries. Once we we were a nation like
any other then they would respect us. They would learn from us. They would love
us. Yeah....can’t you just feel that love overflowing to God’s chosen nation
from the UN, the college campuses, from Europe. Having our own State hasn’t
bought us many more friends or even greater security from genocidal threats.
These are just “solutions” from the past century, when one looks farther back
in our history there are countless more.

This week’s Torah portion suggests one
of the most unique attempts at the destruction of our people. The portion
begins with the Balak the king of Moav enlisting the support of the Midianite
prophet Bilaam to curse the Jewish people. Bilaam having being blessed with
prophesy ( a quid pro quo grant from Hashem to the nations of the world
for having given the Jewish people Moses, says the Medrash) knew the
moment of Divine wrath and by cursing the Jewish people the hope was that Balak
would finally be successful in destroying the nation of God.

Rav Moshe Feinstien one of the greatest
Jewish Halachic decisors and leaders of the last generation notices a subtle
yet very insightful incongruence in Balak’s request and Bilaam’s repetition of
it in his unsuccessful attempt to ask God’s permission to go.

And he (Balak) sent messengers to
Bilaam...saying

Bamidbar 22:5-6)“Behold a Nation has gone
out from Egypt and it has covered the Face of the
earth....please come and curse this people for me.”

And Bilaam said to God Balak has sent to
me ibid: (22:11)

“Behold the Nation coming out of
Egypt and will cover the face of the earth. Now come curse
them for me.”

Whereas Balak who hopes to destroy the
Nations sees them merely in terms of their past, having left Egypt and their
present danger of covering the land, Bilaam the prophet intuits something else.
Bilaam recognizes that this nation is one that hasn’t merely left Egypt but is
still existing and identifying as the Nation coming out of Egypt; the nation
who carries with them and lives with the memory of the dedication and
sacrifices of the their forefathers in whose merit their salvation and survival
ultimately came. It is about this people that Bilaam ultimately predicts
will cover the face of the earth. For we are a nation that lives with the
knowledge that the place from where it came and the experiences that it
underwent are not merely the sad facts of history that are relegated to classes
and legends of our past, rather, they are the pivotal focus of the way we
approach our everyday lives and the challenges that face us. The secret to our
survival has not been to remove or even combat those that threaten to destroy
us. It has been our incredible tenacity in the face of persecution to remain
faithful to the knowledge that we are dedicated to the ideals our forefathers
learned upon leaving Egypt.

We are a nation of survivors.
Perhaps Cecil Roth in his decidedly secular work "History of the
Jews" put it best

“Our survey of three and a half millennia of
Jewish history is closed. But the story which we have set ourselves to tell is
unending. Today the Jewish people has in it still those elements of strength
and of endurance that enabled it to surmount all the crises of its past,
surviving thus the most powerful empires of antiquity.

Throughout our history there have been weaker elements who have shirked the sacrifices
which Judaism entailed. They have been swallowed up, long since, in the great
majority; only the more stalwart have carried on the tradition of their
ancestors, and can now look back with pride upon their superb heritage...

From a reading of Jewish history, one factor emerges... the preservation of the
Jew was certainly not casual. He has endured through the power of a certain
ideal, based upon the recognition of the influence of a higher Power in human
affairs. Time after time in his history, moreover, he has been saved from
disaster in a manner which cannot be described as 'providential'.
The author has deliberately attempted to write this work in a secular spirit;
he does not think that his readers can fail to see in it, on every page, a higher
immanence."

Cecil Roth, "A History of the Jews" Shocken (1961)
Pp. 423-424

We are living in a time when it is not only
our nation that is struggling and finding its survival a struggle. It is the
whole world that is getting swallowed up by the hatred that comes from and evil
that has distorted and are hijacking the name of our God. The God of love and
peace. The God who’s light is waiting for us to shine out and declare to the
world. May our continued dedication to those ideals bring us to an era where
the world will finally know peace and the unity of mankind under our Creator.

Born into a
well-respected family in Sali,Morocco, his father, Harav Moshe Ben Chaim,
traced his lineage to the distinguished and well-known Ben-Attar family of
Rabbanim and leaders of Klal Yisrael.
Rav Chaim spent his early years learning with his grandfather, whose name he
shared. Very soon his grandfather realized that the child possessed rare
talents and needed to be taught privately.
The young Chaim excelled immensely in Torah, and at a rather young age became
well-known as an prodigyand diligent student. He also
lived and taught in Algiers, Italy, Acco and Yerushalayim, where he
settled a year before his passing.
He married his relative, the daughter of Harav Moshe ben Harav Shem Tov
Ben-Attar, who was a pious and wealthy layman and a well-known baal
chessed. His father-in-law supported them generously, and even founded
a yeshivah in which the Ohr Hachaim quickly became a superior proliferator
of Torah. His Rebbetzin took care of the physical needs of
the talmidim,and was a great tzaddeket in her own
right.
His father-in-law was niftar in 1725, and with that came a change in the Ohr
Hachaim’s material situation. Envying the great fortune he had inherited, many
people conspired against him; high government taxes were thrust upon him.
The Ohr HaChaim HaKadosh earned his livelihood as a
silversmith, yet he always made Torah study his primary occupation. He would
sit engrossed in study, and only when his last coin was spent did he engage in
worldly matters.
The Ohr HaChaim once mistakenly caused an affront to the King
of Morocco, who had him thrown into a pit of lions. The Ohr HaChaim put
on his tallit and tefillin, and when he was
thrown into the pit, the lions gathered around him respectfully. Seeing this,
the king proclaimed, "Now I know there is a God of Israel."
Finally, he was released from prison on the condition that he leave the city.
After traveling to several cities he ended up in Livorno, Italy, where he
published some of his great works: Ohr Hachaim and Chaifetz
Hashem.
The Ohr Hachaim had always yearned and aspired to ascend to Eretz Yisrael and
settle in Yerushalayim. With 30 followers he arrived in Eretz Yisrael,
four days before Rosh HaShanahin 1742 and settled in Acco. HaRav
Chaim and his students spent Yom Kippur in the cave
of Eliyahu HaNavi / Elijah the Prophet, on Mount Carmel. Purim was
spent in Tzefat and Miron, where a great deal of
time was spent studying the holyZohar.
On the 15th of Elul of 1743, Rav Chaim finally arrived in Yerushalayim with
his group. He immediately established a yeshiva called Knesset
Yisrael where throngs of talmidim made their way to learn
under his guidance. and a second secretive yeshiva for the study of Kabbalah.
One of his new students was Rav Chaim Yosef Dovid Azulai, the Chida,
who at that time was only 18 years old.

The Ohr
Hachaim authored a number of sefarim, including Pri
Toar, on Yoreh De’ah; Rishon L’Tziyon and Chaifetz
Hashem on the talmud; and Ohr Hachaim on Chumash.
The seferOhr Hachaim became a treasured and
revered work. Gedolim and laymen alike throughout the
generations treasured the fiery, priceless words of the Ohr Hachaim, which
provide a guide to and assistance in the service of Hashem.
The Ohr HaChaim is credited with initiating the idea of
placing a note in the Kotel HaMaaravi / Western Wall; he gave
this advice to his student, the Chida, who was traveling from Morocco
to Eretz Yisrael.
Legend says that he would study in Yerushalayim with Eliyahu
HaNavi in the same building where the Arizal was born
two centuries earlier. Many stories are told of his holiness and greatness, and
of the repeated unsuccessful attempts by HaRav Yisrael Baal Shem
Tov to reach the Holy Land and meet with him in the belief that
together they could bring the Moshiach and the final redemption, as
is evident from correspondence between him and his brother-in-law, Harav
Gershon Kitover.
Unfortunately, the Baal Shem Tov’s ascent to Eretz Yisrael, partially for this
purpose, was never completed. Many tzaddikim used to say
their meeting would have hastened the coming of Moshiach.
The Ohr Hachaim was niftar on 15 Tammuz at the age of 47; he
had no children. There is a story that at shalosh seudot that
week the Baal Shem Tov declared, “The western light has been extinguished,”
referring to the Ohr Hachaim.A problem arises in regard to this story since 15
Tammuz never falls on Shabbat; rather, it was 14 Tammuz that fell on Shabbat
that year. According to some, the yahrtzeit is on 14 Tammuz,
and he was buried on Sunday, 15 Tammuz
Today, the grave of the Ohr HaChaim, located on Har
Hazeitim / the Mount of Olives inYerushalayim, is a popular
place of pilgrimage and prayer.

RABBI SCHWARTZ'S TOUR GUIDE EXAM QUESTION OF
THE WEEK

answer below at end of Email

Q “Mivtza Kadesh” (Kadesh Operation) took
place in:

A. 1948
B. 1956
C. 1967
D. 1970

RABBI SCHWARTZ'S COOL RASHI OF THE WEEK

Some Rashi’s become more famous then others.
Usually it is the ones that add some midrash to explain the simple pshat. Sometimes
it becomes so accepted and taught that people actually confuse the midrashic
story with the actual text. However as we know Rashi only bring as midrash to
explain the text not to add a colorful story.

One of those midrash’s that I always remembered
this week’s Torah portion where the Torah describes the post Bila’am story of
the Jews getting seduced by the daughters of Moav and worshiping the idolatry of
Ba’al Pe’or. Rashi Bamidbar (24:3) notes that this idolatry which means
exposed, was worshipped by ‘because they would expose their backsides before
it and expel excrement upon it.’ I guess you figured out why I remember it…

Yet as we know Rashi is not coming to tell us
stories he is explaining something in the text. The Divrei Hillel Kalemai
explains that the verse tells us that the prelude to their worship was

‘They invited the nation to the feasts of their
gods; the people ate and bowed to their gods and Israel became attached to the
Baal Pe’or.’

It seems that there was a process to their
sinning that began with them eating first. Rav Hillel notes that Rashi previously
told us that the Jewish people who ate the Manna did not have any need to go to
the bathroom, as the food was entirely spiritual and had no waste product. Thus
the Midrash tells us that the daughters of Moav offered them their own cows and
sheep to slaughter ‘kosherly’ thus seducing them as they knew that the Manna
would not provide them with the necessary ahem…materials to worship with. Once
they ate then they were fully primed to worship the idolatry. Thus Rashi
explains what the worship was so that you would understand why it was necessary
for them to eat first.

I guess you won’t forget this Rashi anytime
soon either.

Bon apetit

RABBI SCHWARTZ'S COOL HISTORICAL EVENT THAT
HAPPENED ON THIS DATE IN ISRAEL OF THE WEEK-

Burning of the Talmud in
Paris-9th
Tamuz June 9th 1244- We have always been known to be the pople of the Book. The
Book of course being the Torah, yet the Talmud written from the 5th-6th
century remains the key to understanding and extrapolating all of Jewish
scholarship and our oral tradition that was meant to be extrapolated from the
Torah. It is perhaps more than any other Jewish work the basic and most studied
work that has served as the crux and foundation to any Jewish scholarship and
perhaps most defines us that people of the Book.

The process that led to the
setting of the bonfire, in which it is said that 24 wagons piled with copies of
the multi-volume work of Toah law and tradition, took place over several years.
It began with the accusations of an apostate Jew, Nicholas Donin, of La
Rochelle, France. Donin was excommunicated by his Jewish community around the
year 1229 for his heretical views. In 1236, he traveled to Rome and presented
Pope Gregory IX with a list of complaints about the Talmud.

Among Jews, the Talmud - which
is comprised of the Mishna, the 3rd-century C.E. compendium of law, as
interpreted by the Rabbis; and the Gemara, the 6th-century work of commentary
on the Mishna and other subjects – is also referred to as the Oral Law. And
indeed, it is understood to be no less divinely inspired – or binding – than
the Torah, the Five Books of Moses.

Nicholas Donin’s principal
concern was that the Talmud had begun to supersede the Bible for the Jews, and
that this constituted a theological problem for Christians. The Christian claim
was that the Jews had the responsibility
of upholding the “Old Testament” so as to provide living proof of the New
Testament. If the Jews now gave precedence to the Oral Law, and allowed
themselves to reinterpret the Bible, they were no longer fulfilling their
historic role, and were no longer candidates for conversion – and hence no
longer justified the protection of the Church.

In 1239, Pope Gregory sent
around to other church leaders, and to the kings of Spain, England and
Portugal, a list of 35 arguments against the Talmud compiled by Donin. The
missive concluded with an order to confiscate the book on the first Sabbath in
Lent, in this case March 3, 1240, while the Jews were at prayer. The charges
made against the Talmud included the claim that it blasphemed the founders of
Christianity (or just told the truths that they couldn’t handle), and attacked
non-Jews, among other things. Donin himself traveled back to Paris with the
pope’s letter, which also ordered that “those books in which you find errors of
this sort you shall cause to be burned at the stake."

The next stage in the process,
at least in France, was a “trial” for the Talmud, ordered by King Louis IX, in
what turned out to be the first so-called disputation between Jews and
Christians, which was held in Vincennes in May and June of 1240. Again, it was
Donin who argued the case against the holy book; speaking on its behalf were
four distinguished rabbis, led by Rabbi Yechiel ben Joseph of Paris.

Not surprisingly, the Talmud
was found to be blasphemous, and the consequence was its public burning two
years later, on this date. One estimate is that the 24 wagonloads included up
to 10,000 volumes of Hebrew manuscripts, a startling number when one considers
that the printing press did not yet exist, so that all copies of a work had to
be written out by hand.

Subsequently, Pope Innocent IV,
who became pontiff in 1243, ruled that the Talmud should be corrected, rather
than outright banned, making it possible to censor offensive passages while
Jews were able to continue studying the work.

Rabbi Meir of Rothenburg, the
Maharam, is said to have witnessed the Paris burning, which took place at the
Place de Greve compared it to the destruction of the Temple In a lamentation he
wrote Sha'ali Serufah ("Ask is it well, O thou consumed in
fire") included in the kinah of the Ninth of Av, he
described how “My tears formed a river that reached to the Sinai desert and
to the graves of Moshe and Aharon. Is there another Torah to replace the Torah
which you have taken from us?” Rabbeinu Yonah of Gerondi , who had led
the anti-Maimonists, is said to have connected the burning of the Talmud with
the burning of the Guide and to have bitterly repented his attacks
on Maimonides.

Subsequently the burning of the
Talmud was repeatedly urged by the popes. In France, Louis IX ordered further
confiscations in 1247 and 1248 and upheld the principle in an ordinance of
December 1254. It was confirmed by Philip III in 1284 and
Philip IV in 1290 and 1299. A further burning was ordered in Toulouse
in 1319 by the inquisitor Bernard Gui and in Perpignan. In his manual for
inquisitors Gui also singled out the works of Rashi , David Kimḥi , and
Maimonides for condemnation..

The Shibbolei Leket on Hilchot
Taanit discusses the aftermath of the burning of the Talmud. "We
heard that they asked a she'eilat chalom, whether it was a Heavenly
decree or not, and they were answered, "Veda gezeirat Oraisa"
[the Targum of the verse, Zot chukat HaTorah].
They understood that this hinted that the Friday of Parshat Chukat [the
day the Talmud was burned] is a day of evil decrees. From that day on,
individuals fasted every year on that day [of the week], the Friday of Parshat
Chukat, but not on the day of the month."

As I have always noted we are
our worst enemies and cause the more damage to ourselves then anyone else.

RABBI SCHWARTZ'S FAMILY JOKES OF THE WEEK

The Italian says, I'm tired and thirsty. I
must have wine.

The Scotsman says, I'm tired and thirsty. I
must have Scotch.

The Russian says, I'm tired and thirsty. I
must have vodka.

The Jew says, I'm tired and thirsty. I must
have diabetes.

An Orthodox man was traveling
on El Al, when his seat mate asked what he did for a living.

"I'm a rabbi."

“Well,” said the man
condescendingly, “I was born Jewish. I don't know much about it, but I presume
you could sum it up in one sentence: ‘Do unto others as you would have others
do unto you.’"

The rabbi smiled, then said,
"And what do you do for a living?"

"I’m an astrophysicist,”
he replied smugly.

Well," said the rabbi,
"I don't know much about it, but I presume I too, could sum it up in one
sentence: ‘Twinkle, twinkle, little star -- how I wonder what you are.’”

Rivka Baumgarten tottered
into a lawyer's office.

“I vant a divorce.”

“A divorce?” asked the
shocked lawyer.

“You hoid me, sonny! A
divorce.”

“Mrs. Baumgarten ... how old
are you?”

“Ninety.”

“And your husband?”

“Irving? Ninety-two – next
month.”

“Well ... how long have you
been married?” he asked in disbelief.

“Tomorrow, 70 years."

“Seventy years?! Why a
divorce now?”

“Sonny,” said Rivka ... “enough
is enough.”

A new flood was predicted and
nothing could prevent it. In three days, the waters would wipe out the world.

The Dalai Lama appeared on
worldwide media and pleads with humanity to follow Buddhist teachings to find
nirvana in the wake of the disaster.

The pope issued a similar
message, saying, “It is still not too late to accept Jesus.”

The chief rabbi of Jerusalem
took a slightly different approach. “My people,” he said, we have three days to
learn how to live under water.”

**************

Answer is B – This should not be too hard, although you may not know the
official.names for Israeli wars. How about if I told you that it was called the
Sinai Campaign in English, does that help you? OK let’s take this slowly. You
know that 1948 is the war of Independence. Now there were a lot of battles then
or mivtzaim-operations as they call them in Hebrew, however Kadesh is
not one of them. 1967 was the 6 day war and 70 was the war of attrition over
the Suez canal and with Egypt, However the 1956 war over the Suez Canal is
called Mivtza Kadesh- Kadesh being the biblical city in the South of Israel
where Moshe sent the spies out of to check out the country from.

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About Me

Hi, thanks for popping in. I am a recent Oleh. My wife Aliza and children Shani, Yonah, Rivkah, Elka and Tully recently moved to Karmiel Israel from Seattle Washington where we used to have a little Shul in our home the West Seattle TLC (Torah Learning Center). I have been involved in Jewish educational outreach for over 15 years. Originally a Detroiter, we have been lucky enough to live in Midwood New York, Des Moines Iowa, Norfolk Virginia and Seattle. I'm just a down to earth guy who would rather talk in the front of the shul than the back so i became a Rabbi where that becomes your job. I love Jews,Stories, Israel, and chulent. Recently we opened up the Young Israel of Karmiel and look forward to greeting the many North American and Anglo Olim who will join us here in the beautiful Galil.
Please comment away I thrive on your input. Thanks!

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